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TulaneLSU's Top 10 food signs of Kenner's Williams Boulevard
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:42 am
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:42 am
Dearest Friends y Queridos Amigos,
One of the most regrettable aspects of modern commerce and restaurants is the strip mall. It is impersonal, automobile-centric, and its signage generic. Strip malls have done a great injury to the realm of public art by destroying marque creativity, forcing signs to fit in a small box and pressing adherence to HOA-like regulations.
Companies and restaurants once took great pride in custom signage. It was a time when people practiced and refined the stroke of their signatures. Art mattered, and your signature, signed with a Pineider or Mont Blanc fountain pen, was your way to show the world you were a citizen of class and culture. Compare that to today when people rush their signatures without practice and attempt public displays of refinement through social media posts. Today’s signs look equally uninspired and rote. Imagine how bland the Declaration of Independence would look if the uncultured of today were to sign it. When the epicene English saw the beauty and boldness of those urbane statesmen’s signatures, the war was half won.
I endeavor to push a wave, a renaissance of this public art. Official art installations are fine and have a place. But I believe the art that sticks in peoples’ minds and hearts, which recalls memories and moments, is from the ordinary, the stuff we see every day on the streets in commerce. I do not in any way wish to minimize the importance of holy art, the type that is transcendent and grips the spirit of all. I only wish to appreciate commercial art, elevate the future, and inspire you.
Williams Boulevard is the heart and backbone of America’s City, Kenner. Everything’s right here on its corridor. The street is as old as Kenner itself, although originally, it was a main street running through the heart of the commercial and communal district of the plantation town. After the Civil War, it became largely dominated by Sicilian immigrants who took to feeding New Orleans first. Once the rails opened, they began feeding the entire Midwest, helping enable Chicago, Memphis, and St. Louis to become the cities they are today.
The street dissects the beautiful city of Kenner, running four miles from river to lake. It is reminiscent, in that regard, to Elysian Fields. Until the 1950’s, the boulevard ended south of Veterans, which reached Kenner in the mid-1950s. It would take another decade before the land between West Esplanade and Vets was developed and another two decades for the land north of West Esplanade to boom. Until recently, it was dotted with horse stables: TulaneLSU's mourning Kenner's horse stables: An End to a 200 year tradition.
The 70s saw a Central American influx, largely Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Guatemalan. Many were descendants of employees who worked shipping through The United Fruit Company. Many others descendants of those who had farmed on UFC’s plantations. Today, the Central American influence of Williams is omnipresent, with many signs now in Spanish. More recently we have seen the addition of a large Arabic population. Williams is the immigrant’s boulevard moreso than any other major street in Louisiana.
My friends, as you drive your streets, wherever you are, be alert. Pay attention to its art or lack of art. Watch the changes, because in those changes you find your town and city, and ultimately, your neighbors.
TulaneLSU’s Top 10 food signs of Williams Boulevard
10. Ideal Market
What is the ousia or essence of an ethnic restaurant or grocery? That term ethnic has recently come under attack because people find superiority in questing for shards of a racist monolith, disregarding the functional use of language. All food is ethnic. Is it the type of food that is sold? The country of origin of most of the workers? Or the ethnicity of the store’s owners?
Ideal Market, hailed as one of the best Latino groceries in the area, provides an argument for the first two of the above criteria. Owned by Hamdallah and Muwafak Kaki, the first Ideal was a convenience store. It opened in 2009 in Fat City, which is demographically the most diverse neighborhood in the entire state. Its opening and the new sidewalks heralded the neighborhood’s recent renaissance.
The market has rapidly expanded, opening locations on Broad and in Gretna in 2012. Ideal took over the old Walgreens at the corner of Clearview and Airline, as well as built a store with restaurant in Baton Rouge (2014-2015). In 2016, this Kenner location replaced the city’s best all-time Latino market: Celina’s. Celina’s had a small takeout kitchen that I thought had the best tacos in all of New Orleans. I miss Celina’s.
9. Taco Tico
My dear friend, for whom I am often confused, runningTiger, brought to the board’s attention in 2014 of the closure of the 46 year staple of Metairie dining, Taco Tico. Since the age of 10, my other dear friend, Stadium Rat, has biked over to the Metairie location whenever he wanted a treat. With the Metairie and Slidell locations now gone, Rat is forced to drive to the one in Kenner to get his tico on.
Once numbering in the 100s nationally, there are only 16 extant Taco Ticos. This Kenner location is the last one in the entire state of Louisiana, and the only one in the South (Kentucky and Texas excluded). I’m not sure when this one opened. Its cutout plastic menu, wood booths, and subtle adobe arches suggest a 1980s opening. It reminds me of the interior of that world famous establishment, Señor Pizza, featured in the 80s Patrick Dempsey thriller, Loverboy. What an honor and privilege it is for Kenner to host one of the last remaining Taco Ticos outside Kansas.
8. Brick Oven Cafe
Williams Blvd is known as a gravesite for locally owned restaurants. Very few survive beyond five years. The Brick Oven Cafe is an exception and opened in 1991 to much fanfare for dinner only. I have only visited a few times in those three decades because there are so many wonderful alternatives nearby. Kenner Seafood and Harbor come to mind. I remember a delicious pizza here in the mid 1990s. We had taken our neighbor to the Esplanade Mall to help him finish his Christmas shopping, as he was legally blind. He had ordered a green peppers and pepperoni pizza for himself. When it came out, I snuck a few pepperonis from his pie. Mother caught me and lambasted me. I wasn’t allowed to eat my pizza nor could I get pizza from the takeout at The Boot at Tulane for the next year. I believe that place was called Dino’s. Others have intimated to me that it was actually Rotollo’s. I am 99.99% sure that it was called Dino’s during that time though.
7. Harbor Seafood
It’s hard to believe this place is now 33 years old. Harbor Seafood (est. 1987) and its adjacent seafood market, Fisherman’s Cove (est. 1981), were set up for success when the Esplanade Mall (est. 1983) flourished. Located at the main entrance to the mall from I-10, regulars watched the slow erection of its posterior parking lots through the addition of empty oyster shells. Over the decades, millions of bivalves have been cleaned there and transported to the parking lot, forming a shell minden that rivals ancient Native American mindens.
One of the most regrettable aspects of modern commerce and restaurants is the strip mall. It is impersonal, automobile-centric, and its signage generic. Strip malls have done a great injury to the realm of public art by destroying marque creativity, forcing signs to fit in a small box and pressing adherence to HOA-like regulations.
Companies and restaurants once took great pride in custom signage. It was a time when people practiced and refined the stroke of their signatures. Art mattered, and your signature, signed with a Pineider or Mont Blanc fountain pen, was your way to show the world you were a citizen of class and culture. Compare that to today when people rush their signatures without practice and attempt public displays of refinement through social media posts. Today’s signs look equally uninspired and rote. Imagine how bland the Declaration of Independence would look if the uncultured of today were to sign it. When the epicene English saw the beauty and boldness of those urbane statesmen’s signatures, the war was half won.
I endeavor to push a wave, a renaissance of this public art. Official art installations are fine and have a place. But I believe the art that sticks in peoples’ minds and hearts, which recalls memories and moments, is from the ordinary, the stuff we see every day on the streets in commerce. I do not in any way wish to minimize the importance of holy art, the type that is transcendent and grips the spirit of all. I only wish to appreciate commercial art, elevate the future, and inspire you.
Williams Boulevard is the heart and backbone of America’s City, Kenner. Everything’s right here on its corridor. The street is as old as Kenner itself, although originally, it was a main street running through the heart of the commercial and communal district of the plantation town. After the Civil War, it became largely dominated by Sicilian immigrants who took to feeding New Orleans first. Once the rails opened, they began feeding the entire Midwest, helping enable Chicago, Memphis, and St. Louis to become the cities they are today.
The street dissects the beautiful city of Kenner, running four miles from river to lake. It is reminiscent, in that regard, to Elysian Fields. Until the 1950’s, the boulevard ended south of Veterans, which reached Kenner in the mid-1950s. It would take another decade before the land between West Esplanade and Vets was developed and another two decades for the land north of West Esplanade to boom. Until recently, it was dotted with horse stables: TulaneLSU's mourning Kenner's horse stables: An End to a 200 year tradition.
The 70s saw a Central American influx, largely Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Guatemalan. Many were descendants of employees who worked shipping through The United Fruit Company. Many others descendants of those who had farmed on UFC’s plantations. Today, the Central American influence of Williams is omnipresent, with many signs now in Spanish. More recently we have seen the addition of a large Arabic population. Williams is the immigrant’s boulevard moreso than any other major street in Louisiana.
My friends, as you drive your streets, wherever you are, be alert. Pay attention to its art or lack of art. Watch the changes, because in those changes you find your town and city, and ultimately, your neighbors.
TulaneLSU’s Top 10 food signs of Williams Boulevard
10. Ideal Market
What is the ousia or essence of an ethnic restaurant or grocery? That term ethnic has recently come under attack because people find superiority in questing for shards of a racist monolith, disregarding the functional use of language. All food is ethnic. Is it the type of food that is sold? The country of origin of most of the workers? Or the ethnicity of the store’s owners?
Ideal Market, hailed as one of the best Latino groceries in the area, provides an argument for the first two of the above criteria. Owned by Hamdallah and Muwafak Kaki, the first Ideal was a convenience store. It opened in 2009 in Fat City, which is demographically the most diverse neighborhood in the entire state. Its opening and the new sidewalks heralded the neighborhood’s recent renaissance.
The market has rapidly expanded, opening locations on Broad and in Gretna in 2012. Ideal took over the old Walgreens at the corner of Clearview and Airline, as well as built a store with restaurant in Baton Rouge (2014-2015). In 2016, this Kenner location replaced the city’s best all-time Latino market: Celina’s. Celina’s had a small takeout kitchen that I thought had the best tacos in all of New Orleans. I miss Celina’s.
9. Taco Tico
My dear friend, for whom I am often confused, runningTiger, brought to the board’s attention in 2014 of the closure of the 46 year staple of Metairie dining, Taco Tico. Since the age of 10, my other dear friend, Stadium Rat, has biked over to the Metairie location whenever he wanted a treat. With the Metairie and Slidell locations now gone, Rat is forced to drive to the one in Kenner to get his tico on.
Once numbering in the 100s nationally, there are only 16 extant Taco Ticos. This Kenner location is the last one in the entire state of Louisiana, and the only one in the South (Kentucky and Texas excluded). I’m not sure when this one opened. Its cutout plastic menu, wood booths, and subtle adobe arches suggest a 1980s opening. It reminds me of the interior of that world famous establishment, Señor Pizza, featured in the 80s Patrick Dempsey thriller, Loverboy. What an honor and privilege it is for Kenner to host one of the last remaining Taco Ticos outside Kansas.
8. Brick Oven Cafe
Williams Blvd is known as a gravesite for locally owned restaurants. Very few survive beyond five years. The Brick Oven Cafe is an exception and opened in 1991 to much fanfare for dinner only. I have only visited a few times in those three decades because there are so many wonderful alternatives nearby. Kenner Seafood and Harbor come to mind. I remember a delicious pizza here in the mid 1990s. We had taken our neighbor to the Esplanade Mall to help him finish his Christmas shopping, as he was legally blind. He had ordered a green peppers and pepperoni pizza for himself. When it came out, I snuck a few pepperonis from his pie. Mother caught me and lambasted me. I wasn’t allowed to eat my pizza nor could I get pizza from the takeout at The Boot at Tulane for the next year. I believe that place was called Dino’s. Others have intimated to me that it was actually Rotollo’s. I am 99.99% sure that it was called Dino’s during that time though.
7. Harbor Seafood
It’s hard to believe this place is now 33 years old. Harbor Seafood (est. 1987) and its adjacent seafood market, Fisherman’s Cove (est. 1981), were set up for success when the Esplanade Mall (est. 1983) flourished. Located at the main entrance to the mall from I-10, regulars watched the slow erection of its posterior parking lots through the addition of empty oyster shells. Over the decades, millions of bivalves have been cleaned there and transported to the parking lot, forming a shell minden that rivals ancient Native American mindens.
This post was edited on 2/1/20 at 11:32 pm
15
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:43 am to TulaneLSU
The height of that lot stands at least five feet above the street. I doubt water submerged the lot after Katrina or the May 8, 1995 Flood, though, I was not present here during either historic flood. Cousin hates that lot because the year after Katrina. We traveled there after dropping off Uncle at the airport. Cousin had recently gotten a new Mercedes S500 as a birthday gift. We ate fried shrimp. When we returned, we saw some miscreant had left a dent in the passenger door but did not leave a note of apology. He must have been from Baton Rouge, Mandeville, or Mobile.
Some of the best boiled seafood is found in the seafood market, which is the oldest in Kenner, and one of the longest running seafood markets in the metro area. It’s certainly surpasses any such so called markets Uptown to which I was forced to resort when family members could not drive to Kenner. The restaurant likewise is top notch in its fried seafood offerings. I prefer its fried seafood to any other restaurant in this moderately priced category, save Zimmer’s in Gentilly and Castnet in New Orleans East.
Once famed for its long waits, with people flowing into the front lot, the restaurant expanded northwardly in 2018, taking over the adjacent building and lot. For many years, this was the legendary Jade Palace before being bought out by the Middle Eastern Tarka restaurant. Fleur de Lily Bakery, operated by Richard and Lillian Molina, brought Latino food to the location and great baking goods. Lily’s has since moved to Rivertown.
6. Imperial Garden
In the early 1990s Imperial Garden was enveloped by the ongoing competition between Family Books & Comics and Frank’s Baseball Cards. Family Books & Comics’ mothership was at 8016 West Metairie, where the new Come Back Inn sits. I always found Family’s, as most kids referred to it, prices slightly more reasonable than Frank’s, which opened at 713 Veterans next to the Baskin Robbins.
As money moved west, both businesses expanded to Kenner. Frank’s opened first, across the street next to the Office Depot before moving southward near the old K&B, which somehow is a Foot Locker today. I think the old Frank’s is now, ironically, a gold and diamond shop. Kids sure were on the lookout for their gold and diamonds.
I remember my cousin brought me to Frank’s in 1990 and bought me a pack of Upperdeck cards. I was only five and didn’t know Nolan Ryan from Gregg Jefferies. Cousin bought me a pack to shut me up, as I had lots of baseball questions. I opened it, and lo and behold, I found a card that had a circle with a rookie in it. The photo showed a young player wearing a gold chain, smiling, and holding a bat as a southpaw would. I went to cousin and asked, “What does roooooo ki mean?”
Cousin grabbed me by the ribs, shook and lifted me. “You know what this means!”
I couldn’t tell if it was a question or an exclamation. No sooner did his words leave his mouth was at the buyer’s counter, selling my my card. Even though I saw the same card on sale for $95 in the case, Cousin only got $40 for it.
Cousin immediately grabbed my hand and headed out the door. We turned south on Williams and then left at Veterans. That left turn arrow must have lasted five minutes. Then we turned right at Downs Blvd and then into the parking lot of a place called Downs Lounge. I was familiar with the area from soccer tournaments at Lafreniere.
I knew enough about bars and lounges even then to know not to go in. He threatened me: “If you don’t come in we are going to Jefferson Downs to watch the horses.”
He knew of my repulsion to gambling and of that behemoth of a blue and white striped structure on Sunset Drive. It was a terrifying building by day and the work of Satan by night. My resolve did not crumble. “No. I’m not going in no matter what.”
“Suit yourself.” Cousin didn’t return for another hour. I wasn’t left alone in a car like that for another few years. In the car I sat, still in my suit, where I memorized the names and stats on the baseball cards that Cousin didn’t sell.
When he finally returned his companion was the scent of summer socks and stale cigarette smoke. “We are coming back tonight,” he said. “Miss Sophie, the ballerina queen of burlesque, is dancing.” I had no desire to see Metairie’s Anna Pavlova.
When I returned to my Prytania retreat, I ensconced myself in my room and didn’t speak to Cousin for weeks. The next time we spoke, he took me to the Kenner Family Books, bought me another pack of cards. There was no Griffey Jr. card this time. Then we ate next door at Imperial Garden, which I enjoyed.
5. Fong’s
A Williams Blvd. institution since 1977, making it Kenner’s second oldest restaurant, Fong’s will always be a place of deep memories for me. Before we were forcibly removed from Prytania, we employed Ms. Mae as our parlormaid. In addition to her cleaning duties, she was a brilliant cook. When I was two we were able to hire her away from another family, perhaps a relation of glassman. Physically, she was quite large. Her arms were so enormous that her elbows pitted like fatty volcano craters. Every extremity jiggled like a Jello mold when she waddled.
Mother was in the habit of purchasing her prime steaks from a well known beef purveyor each Christmas. It came to pass one evening at the dinner table a conversation on our favorite restaurants. I inquired, “Ms. Mae, what is your favorite restaurant?”
“Oh, TulaneLSU, I just love Fong’s Chinese out in Kenner. But it’s so far away and I can’t get a ride there.” She lived with us for a time and didn’t require a vehicle. When she moved to her son’s house in Black Pearl, she relied on the streetcar for transportation. Too bad for her the O-K Rail Line stopped running in 1930.
Mother knows best, and she made it her mission to ensure we went to Fong’s every December to celebrate with Ms. Mae. I always looked forward to the evening. Never did Ms. Mae look happier than she did sitting before her three entrees. She sure wasn’t bashful when it came to ordering. Mother did, afterall, say, “Order whatever you want.”
One of the dishes she always got was a beef dish served in a stone bowl. It was heated by this napalm like flammable gel that gave off a brilliant blue almost cobalt hue. I don’t know what that stuff is called, but 9 Roses used to use it. I stared at that flame until it faded.
Fong’s is the Metro’s oldest Chinese restaurant and it gets no public love. Even Tom Fitzmorris fails to speak or write about it. The geographic ignoramuses in the Times Picayune dining section have neglected it, not once doing an article on it. True, there was a crime section article about the restaurant’s owner, coincidentally named Mae Fong, setting fire to her rival’s at Young’s Garden a block away in 2009. Video of the alleged arson was never released to the public. The story, which I have little doubt is good enough for a movie, faded from the news quickly. Imagine the how loud and long the chatter would have continued had Lally burned down one of Besh’s restaurants.
43 years strong and Ms. Mae’s favorite. I can’t believe some of you haven’t been. You call that living?
4. Little Chinatown
Indisputably, Little Chinatown has the Metro’s best duck dishes. I would also argue that it is overall the top Chinese restaurant in the state. I cannot think of any interesting stories about eating here as it is now. When it was a Pizza Hut, now then I can weave some tales from my mind’s web of myelinated axons.
Some of the best boiled seafood is found in the seafood market, which is the oldest in Kenner, and one of the longest running seafood markets in the metro area. It’s certainly surpasses any such so called markets Uptown to which I was forced to resort when family members could not drive to Kenner. The restaurant likewise is top notch in its fried seafood offerings. I prefer its fried seafood to any other restaurant in this moderately priced category, save Zimmer’s in Gentilly and Castnet in New Orleans East.
Once famed for its long waits, with people flowing into the front lot, the restaurant expanded northwardly in 2018, taking over the adjacent building and lot. For many years, this was the legendary Jade Palace before being bought out by the Middle Eastern Tarka restaurant. Fleur de Lily Bakery, operated by Richard and Lillian Molina, brought Latino food to the location and great baking goods. Lily’s has since moved to Rivertown.
6. Imperial Garden
In the early 1990s Imperial Garden was enveloped by the ongoing competition between Family Books & Comics and Frank’s Baseball Cards. Family Books & Comics’ mothership was at 8016 West Metairie, where the new Come Back Inn sits. I always found Family’s, as most kids referred to it, prices slightly more reasonable than Frank’s, which opened at 713 Veterans next to the Baskin Robbins.
As money moved west, both businesses expanded to Kenner. Frank’s opened first, across the street next to the Office Depot before moving southward near the old K&B, which somehow is a Foot Locker today. I think the old Frank’s is now, ironically, a gold and diamond shop. Kids sure were on the lookout for their gold and diamonds.
I remember my cousin brought me to Frank’s in 1990 and bought me a pack of Upperdeck cards. I was only five and didn’t know Nolan Ryan from Gregg Jefferies. Cousin bought me a pack to shut me up, as I had lots of baseball questions. I opened it, and lo and behold, I found a card that had a circle with a rookie in it. The photo showed a young player wearing a gold chain, smiling, and holding a bat as a southpaw would. I went to cousin and asked, “What does roooooo ki mean?”
Cousin grabbed me by the ribs, shook and lifted me. “You know what this means!”
I couldn’t tell if it was a question or an exclamation. No sooner did his words leave his mouth was at the buyer’s counter, selling my my card. Even though I saw the same card on sale for $95 in the case, Cousin only got $40 for it.
Cousin immediately grabbed my hand and headed out the door. We turned south on Williams and then left at Veterans. That left turn arrow must have lasted five minutes. Then we turned right at Downs Blvd and then into the parking lot of a place called Downs Lounge. I was familiar with the area from soccer tournaments at Lafreniere.
I knew enough about bars and lounges even then to know not to go in. He threatened me: “If you don’t come in we are going to Jefferson Downs to watch the horses.”
He knew of my repulsion to gambling and of that behemoth of a blue and white striped structure on Sunset Drive. It was a terrifying building by day and the work of Satan by night. My resolve did not crumble. “No. I’m not going in no matter what.”
“Suit yourself.” Cousin didn’t return for another hour. I wasn’t left alone in a car like that for another few years. In the car I sat, still in my suit, where I memorized the names and stats on the baseball cards that Cousin didn’t sell.
When he finally returned his companion was the scent of summer socks and stale cigarette smoke. “We are coming back tonight,” he said. “Miss Sophie, the ballerina queen of burlesque, is dancing.” I had no desire to see Metairie’s Anna Pavlova.
When I returned to my Prytania retreat, I ensconced myself in my room and didn’t speak to Cousin for weeks. The next time we spoke, he took me to the Kenner Family Books, bought me another pack of cards. There was no Griffey Jr. card this time. Then we ate next door at Imperial Garden, which I enjoyed.
5. Fong’s
A Williams Blvd. institution since 1977, making it Kenner’s second oldest restaurant, Fong’s will always be a place of deep memories for me. Before we were forcibly removed from Prytania, we employed Ms. Mae as our parlormaid. In addition to her cleaning duties, she was a brilliant cook. When I was two we were able to hire her away from another family, perhaps a relation of glassman. Physically, she was quite large. Her arms were so enormous that her elbows pitted like fatty volcano craters. Every extremity jiggled like a Jello mold when she waddled.
Mother was in the habit of purchasing her prime steaks from a well known beef purveyor each Christmas. It came to pass one evening at the dinner table a conversation on our favorite restaurants. I inquired, “Ms. Mae, what is your favorite restaurant?”
“Oh, TulaneLSU, I just love Fong’s Chinese out in Kenner. But it’s so far away and I can’t get a ride there.” She lived with us for a time and didn’t require a vehicle. When she moved to her son’s house in Black Pearl, she relied on the streetcar for transportation. Too bad for her the O-K Rail Line stopped running in 1930.
Mother knows best, and she made it her mission to ensure we went to Fong’s every December to celebrate with Ms. Mae. I always looked forward to the evening. Never did Ms. Mae look happier than she did sitting before her three entrees. She sure wasn’t bashful when it came to ordering. Mother did, afterall, say, “Order whatever you want.”
One of the dishes she always got was a beef dish served in a stone bowl. It was heated by this napalm like flammable gel that gave off a brilliant blue almost cobalt hue. I don’t know what that stuff is called, but 9 Roses used to use it. I stared at that flame until it faded.
Fong’s is the Metro’s oldest Chinese restaurant and it gets no public love. Even Tom Fitzmorris fails to speak or write about it. The geographic ignoramuses in the Times Picayune dining section have neglected it, not once doing an article on it. True, there was a crime section article about the restaurant’s owner, coincidentally named Mae Fong, setting fire to her rival’s at Young’s Garden a block away in 2009. Video of the alleged arson was never released to the public. The story, which I have little doubt is good enough for a movie, faded from the news quickly. Imagine the how loud and long the chatter would have continued had Lally burned down one of Besh’s restaurants.
43 years strong and Ms. Mae’s favorite. I can’t believe some of you haven’t been. You call that living?
4. Little Chinatown
Indisputably, Little Chinatown has the Metro’s best duck dishes. I would also argue that it is overall the top Chinese restaurant in the state. I cannot think of any interesting stories about eating here as it is now. When it was a Pizza Hut, now then I can weave some tales from my mind’s web of myelinated axons.
This post was edited on 2/1/20 at 11:44 am
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:43 am to TulaneLSU
The late 80s and early 90s were the heyday of Pizza Hut, and this locale was one of the city’s best. Owing to its proximity to Don Carter’s All-Star Bowling Lanes, it was a hot spot for birthday party lunches. When I was in Pre-K at St. Martin’s, I met for the first time peers, only by age, who lived in Metairie and Kenner. It seemed every few months one of them would copy another with a birthday lunch at this Pizza Hut followed by an hour of bowling at Don Carter’s.
Pizza Hut then had a phenomenal pizza, better than Pequod’s today. Pequod’s almost certainly copied the Pizza Hut recipe. Sadly, during the 2000s PH either changed the recipe, went cheap on ingredients, or both. It hasn’t been the same. Domino’s has since replaced it as the best chain pizza.
3. Messina’s
Messina’s is the oldest restaurant in Kenner. Opened in 1961 near the corner of Williams and Veterans it has served countless thousands of Kennerarians or Kennerites. For a time, it provided catering to the Kenner Jail. What a catch 22 to be imprisoned in Kenner during that time. Maybe that was Aaron Broussard’s goal?
Saia’s joined Messina’s in 1976 as another fine dining restaurant in Kenner. Saia’s followed the long tradition of Creole Italian food, specializing in trout almondine, prime steaks, and BBQ shrimp. It was located at 3315 Williams where Taqueria Jalisco is today. The restaurant’s owner, Robert Saia, played football at Tulane and died in 2016.
Recently, the restaurant’s attention has turned to catering and banquets, with outlets at both airports. I don’t think the old restaurant is open for regular business. They have opened up a bar with kitchen across the street from the original restaurant inside the luxurious La Quinta. I have not yet tried it.
2. Dot’s Diner
I have no stories for Dot’s Diner. I think this one opened in 1996. I’ve never been and only started appreciating diner food in the last two months after a trip to Waffle House. The signage is colorful, creative, and functional.
1. Pancho’s
Everyone knows the history. I won’t rehash it. I won’t even bore you with the story of the time I was invited back into the kitchen at the original location and learned to make sopapillas. Sadly, I burned the fry chef’s hand so bad he had to go to the hospital.
Here’s some Williams lagniappe
11. Gerry’s
The sign is now diminutive, just as Ms. Gerry was when she was alive. It is beautifully hand crafted and well adorns one of the finest examples of mid-century modern architecture found on The Boulevard.
12. Shop N Go
One of the finest convenience store poorboys available. When the 350 bus is up and running for my tours, this place will definitely be a stop.
13. Young’s Garden
Young’s with Fong’s peering abaft.
14. Gendusa's
15. Ristorante da Piero
Dearest of Friends, attend to your senses and appreciate every gift open to you.
Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU
Pizza Hut then had a phenomenal pizza, better than Pequod’s today. Pequod’s almost certainly copied the Pizza Hut recipe. Sadly, during the 2000s PH either changed the recipe, went cheap on ingredients, or both. It hasn’t been the same. Domino’s has since replaced it as the best chain pizza.
3. Messina’s
Messina’s is the oldest restaurant in Kenner. Opened in 1961 near the corner of Williams and Veterans it has served countless thousands of Kennerarians or Kennerites. For a time, it provided catering to the Kenner Jail. What a catch 22 to be imprisoned in Kenner during that time. Maybe that was Aaron Broussard’s goal?
Saia’s joined Messina’s in 1976 as another fine dining restaurant in Kenner. Saia’s followed the long tradition of Creole Italian food, specializing in trout almondine, prime steaks, and BBQ shrimp. It was located at 3315 Williams where Taqueria Jalisco is today. The restaurant’s owner, Robert Saia, played football at Tulane and died in 2016.
Recently, the restaurant’s attention has turned to catering and banquets, with outlets at both airports. I don’t think the old restaurant is open for regular business. They have opened up a bar with kitchen across the street from the original restaurant inside the luxurious La Quinta. I have not yet tried it.
2. Dot’s Diner
I have no stories for Dot’s Diner. I think this one opened in 1996. I’ve never been and only started appreciating diner food in the last two months after a trip to Waffle House. The signage is colorful, creative, and functional.
1. Pancho’s
Everyone knows the history. I won’t rehash it. I won’t even bore you with the story of the time I was invited back into the kitchen at the original location and learned to make sopapillas. Sadly, I burned the fry chef’s hand so bad he had to go to the hospital.
Here’s some Williams lagniappe
11. Gerry’s
The sign is now diminutive, just as Ms. Gerry was when she was alive. It is beautifully hand crafted and well adorns one of the finest examples of mid-century modern architecture found on The Boulevard.
12. Shop N Go
One of the finest convenience store poorboys available. When the 350 bus is up and running for my tours, this place will definitely be a stop.
13. Young’s Garden
Young’s with Fong’s peering abaft.
14. Gendusa's
15. Ristorante da Piero
Dearest of Friends, attend to your senses and appreciate every gift open to you.
Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU
This post was edited on 2/1/20 at 11:36 pm
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:43 am to TulaneLSU
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:45 am to TulaneLSU
You could've stopped posting at 10,000. 
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:49 am to TulaneLSU
quote:
Kenner
Kenner's kinda ugly, no?
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:50 am to TulaneLSU
The Brick Oven...the place I learned to ask how much does that special cost???
Posted on 2/1/20 at 11:53 am to TulaneLSU
You say monolith a lot.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:04 pm to TulaneLSU
(no message)
This post was edited on 1/11/21 at 1:45 am
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:10 pm to TulaneLSU
Props to Little china town for their handicap parking spots.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:10 pm to TulaneLSU
Dots sign is best.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:11 pm to efrad
Agree.
I enjoy reading your posts!
I enjoy reading your posts!
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:17 pm to tigerfan311
Harbor seafood FTW.
You left out smitty's poboys though.
You left out smitty's poboys though.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:19 pm to TulaneLSU
quote:
I won’t even bore you with the story of the time I was invited back into the kitchen at the original location and learned to make sopapillas.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:19 pm to TulaneLSU
When you start doing signs man, you're reaching.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:21 pm to TulaneLSU
What a wonderful virtual travel experience, almost like I was there.
If I ever pass through again I will drive the Boulevard.
If I ever pass through again I will drive the Boulevard.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:24 pm to TulaneLSU
Thanks. I DV'ed.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:27 pm to TulaneLSU
quote:Post less.
TulaneLSU
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:28 pm to TulaneLSU
I had friends that had Saints season tickets and I would get one quite often when one particular family member didn't go to the game. So, I drove in from BR often by myself and met them at the Dome.
My traditional stop was the The Brickoven for a bloody mary for the last few miles in. If I was lucky enough for it to be a 3:00 or evening game, The Harbor for a few pints of Abita and a meal, THEN the Brickoven for a bloody mary for the last few miles in.
Part of my Saints tradition that I can no longer participate in. Maybe stop in the Brickoven for a Coke Zero if the opportunity presents itself. That family member is now old enough to enjoy the games so I don't get that call very often anymore anyway.
My traditional stop was the The Brickoven for a bloody mary for the last few miles in. If I was lucky enough for it to be a 3:00 or evening game, The Harbor for a few pints of Abita and a meal, THEN the Brickoven for a bloody mary for the last few miles in.
Part of my Saints tradition that I can no longer participate in. Maybe stop in the Brickoven for a Coke Zero if the opportunity presents itself. That family member is now old enough to enjoy the games so I don't get that call very often anymore anyway.
Posted on 2/1/20 at 12:29 pm to TulaneLSU
Do you have the ability to hyperfocus and count cards from a multi-deck shoe
If so, would you be up for a road trip to get material for a Top 10 signs at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi thread?
If so, would you be up for a road trip to get material for a Top 10 signs at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi thread?
This post was edited on 2/1/20 at 12:30 pm
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